Our country’s agricultural foreign trade increased significantly last year

By: STA Date: 2024. 03. 07. 10:00

Last year, the value of agricultural exports reached 13.4 billion euros, which means that our country sold 3.5 billion euros more on foreign markets than it imported. Agriculture accounted for 38 percent of the foreign trade surplus of the entire national economy. The domestic agricultural sector goes beyond raw material production, 74 percent of exports consisted of processed products last year.

(Photo: Pixabay)

Last year, the value of domestic agricultural exports exceeded the high level of 2022 by 1.3 percent, 174 million euros. Agricultural imports of EUR 9.9 billion also increased by 1.3 percent, which represents an increase of EUR 122.8 million compared to 2022. Thanks to this, the foreign trade surplus expanded by 1.5 percent. The background of the slight increase in agricultural exports is the increase in prices, as the volume decreased.

The volume of agricultural exports decreased by 0.8 percent year-on-year in 2023, but export prices rose by 2.1 percent

The volume of agricultural imports decreased by 9.1 percent, which was offset by an 11.4 percent increase in prices last year. The pace of export development observed in recent years corresponds to the achievement of the 15 billion euro goal set for 2030 in the “Renewable countryside, renewable agriculture” program. The result of exports has also changed favorably in recent years with regard to the other important agricultural foreign trade objective, i.e. the increase in the degree of processing. This is primarily due to the increase in the export of highly processed products. From the point of view of domestic added value, employment and income, it is favorable that 74 percent of exports consisted of processed products in 2023, in 2010 this ratio was 62 percent. The export of secondary processed products increased every year between 2010 and 2023, thanks to which its share increased from 31 to 42 percent in 13 years. Another 33 percent of exports were primarily processed products, and raw materials accounted for 26 percent.

Hungary’s largest export market in 2023 was Germany with EUR 1.8 billion, followed by Italy (EUR 1.7 billion), Romania (EUR 1.65 billion), Austria (EUR 1.1 billion) and Poland (EUR 750 million). The share of the five countries in agricultural exports was 53.9 percent.

AM

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